GNSO Council Agenda 18 July 2024
Please note that all documents referenced in the agenda have been gathered on a Wiki page for convenience and easier access: https://community.icann.org/x/IoDKF.
This agenda was established according to the GNSO Operating Procedures v3.5, updated on 15 March 2023.
For convenience:
- An excerpt of the ICANN Bylaws defining the voting thresholds is provided in Appendix 1 at the end of this agenda.
- An excerpt from the Council Operating Procedures defining the absentee voting procedures is provided in Appendix 2 at the end of this agenda.
GNSO Council meeting on Thursday, 18 July 2024 at 13:00 UTC: https://tinyurl.com/mud7kn9k
06:00 Los Angeles; 09:00 Washington DC; 14:00 London; 15:00 Paris; 16:00 Moscow; 23:00 Melbourne
GNSO Council Meeting Remote Participation: https://icann.zoom.us/j/92283565389?pwd=QnlHK1JSbzdiSFFZSjRjamxMTkNGdz09
Councilors should notify the GNSO Secretariat in advance if they will not be able to attend and/or need a dial out call.
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Item 1: Administrative Matters (5 minutes)
1.1 - Roll Call
1.2 - Updates to Statements of Interest
1.3 - Review / Amend Agenda
1.4 - Note the status of minutes for the previous Council meetings per the GNSO Operating Procedures:
Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 16 May 2024 were posted on 01 June 2024.
Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 12 June 2024 were posted on 01 July 2024.
Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects & Action List (0 minutes)
2.1 - Review focus areas and provide updates on specific key themes / topics, to include review of Projects List and Action Item List.
Item 3: Consent Agenda (5 minutes)
- GNSO PR Officer - Roles & Responsibilities
- Confirmation of GNSO nominees to the Pilot Holistic Review
Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - EPDP on Temporary Specification Phase 1 Urgent Requests (20 minutes)
On 18 May 2019, the ICANN Board adopted the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data to enable contracted parties to continue to comply with existing ICANN contractual requirements and community-developed policies as they relate to registration directory services. The GNSO Council initiated a one-year policy development process to confirm whether or not the Temporary Specification should become a consensus policy, and whether it provided an enduring framework for complying with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The EPDP Team sent its Phase 1 Final Report to the GNSO Council on 20 February 2019, and the GNSO Council voted to approve the Final Report on 4 March 2019. The Board subsequently adopted the Phase 1 Final Report on 15 May 2019, with the exception of Recommendation 1, Purpose 2, and Recommendation 12, which the Board did not adopt in full. The Board directed the ICANN President and CEO or their designee(s) to implement the policy recommendations.
ICANN org convened an Implementation Review Team, which began meeting in May 2019. ICANN org published the draft Registration Data Policy for public comment on 24 August 2022. Several commenters expressed dissatisfaction with the implementation of Recommendation 18, specifically around the issue of the response timeline for urgent requests. The relevant portion of Recommendation 18 reads, “A separate timeline of [less than X business days] will considered [sic] for the response to ‘Urgent’ Reasonable Disclosure Requests, those Requests for which evidence is supplied to show an immediate need for disclosure [time frame to be finalized and criteria set for Urgent requests during implementation].”
Following the public comment period and subsequent discussion by the Implementation Review Team, the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) wrote to the Board about the topic of urgent requests on 23 August 2023. The Registrar Stakeholder Group wrote to the Board on 8 September 2023 in response to the GAC’s letter.
Following the receipt of these letters and further communication amongst Board members, the Board sent a letter to the GNSO Council on 3 June 2024, expressing its concerns with the text of Recommendation 18 related to urgent requests.
Here, the GNSO Council will discuss the concerns raised in the Board’s letter and discuss next steps in light of the concerns.
4.1 - Introduction of Topic (Greg DiBiase, GNSO Chair)
4.2 - Council Discussion
4.3 - Next Steps
Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Accuracy Check-in (20 minutes)
The Registration Data Accuracy (RDA) Scoping Team was initiated by the GNSO Council in July 2021 per the formation instructions.
The Scoping Team completed Assignment #1 (enforcement and reporting) and Assignment #2 (measurement of accuracy) and submitted its write up to the Council on 5 September 2022. In its write up, the Scoping Team suggested moving forward with two proposals that would not require access to registration data, namely a registrar survey (recommendation #1) and a possible registrar audit (recommendation #2) that may help further inform the team’s work on assignment #3 (effectiveness) and #4 (impact & improvements), while it awaits the outcome of the outreach to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) by ICANN org in relation to proposals that would require access to registration data (recommendation #3).
On 19 October 2023, ICANN org provided an update on Registration Data Accuracy efforts, in which it noted limitations and concerns with proceeding with the Scoping Team’s recommendation #1 (voluntary registrar survey) and registrar audit (recommendation #2). The Council voted to extend the deferral of the Accuracy Scoping Team’s recommendations by another six months during its meeting on 15 February 2024. During this meeting, the Council agreed to check in on the progress of these items during its June 2024 meeting.
Following the ICANN80 GNSO Council Wrap-Up, the GNSO Council Chair asked Councilors to consider the following questions:
- Evaluation of Proposed Alternatives: In its [gnso.icann.org]write-up [gnso.icann.org], ICANN noted limitations in processing data for the purpose of assessing accuracy and proposed two alternatives (analyzing historical audit data and engagement with Contracted Parties on ccTLD practices – see detail below). Is pursuing these alternatives worthwhile? If not, are there other alternatives for obtaining data Council should consider?
- Consideration of Scoping Team Restart: Given the limitations with respect to access to data, would there be value in restarting the Scoping Team at this time?
- Advancing the Topic: If restarting the Scoping Team at this time is not deemed advisable, what other ideas do you have to advance this topic given its importance to the ICANN community?
Here, the Council will discuss the above questions and determine next steps.
5.1 - Introduction of Topic (Greg DiBiase, GNSO Chair)
5.2 - Council Discussion
5.3 - Next Steps
Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - GNSO Review of GAC Communiqué (10 minutes)
Following the GAC’s publication of its Communiqué, a small group of GNSO Councilors closely reviews the contents of the Communiqué and provides additional draft guidance to the ICANN Board, where appropriate. Following this review, the small team provides its draft guidance to the GNSO Council for further feedback and approval before sending it to the ICANN Board.
Here, the Council will receive an update on the expected contents of the GNSO Council’s Review of the ICANN80 GAC Communiqué.
6.1 - Introduction of Topic (Jeff Neuman, GNSO Council Liaison to the GAC)
6.2 - Council Discussion
6.3 - Next Steps
Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update from Small Team Plus on Singulars/Plurals (10 minutes)
In March 2023, the ICANN Board approved the majority of the recommendations contained in the Final Report on the new gTLD Subsequent PDP, but also placed some recommendations into a pending status. The Council convened a small team that worked collaboratively with the ICANN Board to resolve all pending recommendations. While the majority of the pending recommendations were able to be adopted by the ICANN Board, recommendations across six Topics were non adopted by the ICANN Board.
The Council tasked the Small Team Plus with developing Supplemental Recommendations on five of the six Topics, i.e., Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments, Applicant Support, Terms and Conditions, String Similarity Evaluations, and Limited Challenge/Appeal Mechanisms. Based on the expected implementation as it relates to the Continued Operations Instrument (COI), the Small Team Plus determined it was unnecessary to develop a Supplemental Recommendation for Topic 22: Registrant Protections. The Small Team Plus developed Supplemental Recommendations for all five topics and shared them with the Council. Because of information received just prior to Council consideration in April 2024, the Council elected to defer consideration of the Supplemental Recommendation related to String Similarity Evaluations, or more specifically, singular/plurals. The new information received was a strawperson developed by ICANN org, which provided a potential path forward for singular/plurals. The Council asked to consider whether it felt that the strawperson was promising enough to task the Small Team Plus considering whether strawperson, or and amended version, could be agreed upon.
Here, the Council will receive an update from the Small Team Plus on Singulars/Plurals.
7.1 - Introduction of Topic (Paul McGrady, Chair of Small Team Plus)
7.2 - Council Discussion
7.3 - Next Steps
Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Supplemental Recommendations - Non-Adopted Recommendations (20 minutes)
In March 2023, the ICANN Board approved the majority of the recommendations contained in the Final Report on the new gTLD Subsequent PDP, but also placed some recommendations into a pending status. The Council convened a small team that worked collaboratively with the ICANN Board to resolve all pending recommendations. While the majority of the pending recommendations were able to be adopted by the ICANN Board, recommendations across six Topics were non adopted by the ICANN Board.
With the primary task of addressing the pending recommendations completed, the Council tasked the Small Team Plus with an updated assignment form. The Small Team Plus developed Supplemental Recommendation language for five of the six Topics.
On 01 April 2024, the Small Team Plus shared the final Supplemental Recommendations and explanations for the Supplemental Recommendations with the GNSO Council.
On 18 April 2024, the GNSO Council voted to approve the Supplemental Recommendations for the non-adopted SubPro recommendations (regarding the following topics: Topic 9: Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments, Topic 17: Applicant Support, Topic 18: Terms & Conditions, and Topic 32: Limited Challenge/Appeal Mechanism). The Council elected to remand back to the Small Team Plus the Supplemental Recommendations related to string similarity, after an ICANN org strawperson was shared shortly before the Council meeting.
On 8 June 2024, the ICANN Board adopted the following scorecard, wherein it approved the Supplemental Recommendations related to Topic 17: Applicant Support and Topic 32: Limited Challenge/Appeal Mechanism. The Board did not adopt the Supplemental Recommendations related to Topic 9: Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments and Topic 18: Terms & Conditions.
Here, the Council will discuss whether any further actions should be pursued for any of the non-adopted Supplemental Recommendations.
8.1 - Introduction of Topic (Paul McGrady, Chair of Small Team Plus)
8.2 - Council Discussion
8.3 - Next Steps
Item 9: COUNCIL UPDATE - Intellectual Property Constituency Request for Reconsideration (10 minutes)
On 22 November 2023, the Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC) filed a Request for Reconsideration of the ICANN Board Resolutions 2023.10.26.11 and 2023.10.26.122, regarding (i) the actions and inactions that led to (a) the ICANN Board’s public comment of 6 December 2018 on the Initial Report of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP), (b) the organization of the public comment phase on the Proposed Final Report of the New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross Community Working Group, (c) the ICANN Board Resolutions 2022.06.12.13 to 2022.06.12.16 , and (ii) the actions and inactions involving the implementation of the ICANN Grant Giving Program.
During its meeting at ICANN80, a few GNSO Councilors volunteered to draft a letter to the Board regarding the Request for Reconsideration. Here, the Council will hear an update on the draft letter and discuss potential next steps for the Council, if any.
9.1 - Introduction of Topic (Greg DiBiase, GNSO Chair)
9.2 - Council Discussion
9.3 - Next Steps
Item 10: Any Other Business (20 minutes)
10.1 - Aspirational Statement
10.2 - SPS Actions Follow-up
- Recommendations Report
- Public Comment Review
- Board Readiness
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Appendix 1: GNSO Council Voting Thresholds (ICANN Bylaws, Article 11, Section 11.3(i))
See https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/bylaws-en/#article11.
Appendix 2: GNSO Council Absentee Voting Procedures (GNSO Operating Procedures, Section 4.4)
See https://gnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/file/field-file-attach/op-procedures-15mar23-en.pdf
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